Mr. Roldan will discuss three completed or planned energy efficiency projects: the installation of Telkonet's guestroom energy management system, using EcoTouch wireless thermostats; new LED lighting for the hotel's redesigned guest rooms; and converting to ThinkLite high-quality LED tubes, which are the most energy efficient tube lights on the market.

Dirty coils increase HVAC energy consumption by up to 30%. Mr. Hindt will explain how a thorough, deep cleaning of your hotel's HVAC coils is one of the best and easiest ways to reduce energy consumption.

Matthew Fagan,
Senior Sales Executive, SMARTCON SolutionsMr. Fagan will take us to one of the Ritz-Carlton guestrooms and show us the hotel's new Telkonet EcoTouch thermostats, which are a component of the hotel's guestroom energy management system.

The
Telkonet system sends alerts to hotel engineers when problems are discovered, and produces useful reports. Guests like the EcoTouch thermostats because they're sleek and have a touch-screen.

IDEAS

Governments are Asking Commercial Buildings to become Fossil Fuel Free; How can Hotels Achieve that Standard?

The City of Boston established a goal of 100% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050--not just for government buildings and operations, but for the entire city.

Similarly, California has set ambitious goals for zero net energy (ZNE) buildings. One of them is that, "50% of commercial buildings will be retrofit to ZNE by 2030."

Other cities and states are considering such goals, too.

How can existing hotels eliminate their use of fossil fuels in order to meet these standards? Here's how to do it in four steps.

1.Make buildings as energy efficient as possible.

There are dozens of ways, of course, for properties to become more efficient. Most Boston hotels have already cut their energy use by 20% or more since 2005.

MA hotels will continue to become more efficient, because technologies keep improving and the Mass Save financial incentives are rich.

2. Electrify all functions that now use natural gas, such as space heating, water heating and cooking.

For existing hotels that want to stop using fossil fuels, this is the most challenging step. Electric heat pumps (examples
here and here) provide economical, quiet and space-efficient heating and cooling for new commercial buildings. But it's costly to retrofit existing buildings with heat pumps, because they require the installation of an extensive pipe network.

An HVAC executive told me that a ballpark ROI for incorporating heat pumps into existing buildings not designed for them is 10 years. Incentives, of course, would make such an investment more appealing.

It's easier to convert to electric cooking equipment. Although many chefs prefer cooking with gas, the newer electric induction stoves are gaining converts.

3.Buy electric vehiclesfor use by the hotel.

By the early 2020's, EV's are expected to be cheaper than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Once a property runs all of its equipment on electricity, and its vehicles are electric, it could be powered entirely by renewable energy--and become a zero net energy building.

Buying 100% renewable energy seems like a stretch for many hotels right now. But over time, it will become ordinary, for two reasons.

First, the grid will become greener over time. In MA, the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires electric utilities to provide 13% renewable energy in 2018; and increase that number by 1% per year. So, MA buildings will use at least 45% renewable electricity by 2050. Even that number might be conservative, because proposed legislation calls for increasing the RPS by 2% or 3% per year.

Second, the price of renewable electricity continues to plummet. Solar and wind power, combined with batteries, are expected to be cheaper than fossil fuel in most states in the 2020's. In some states, they already out-compete fossil fuel.

As you can see, steps 1, 3 and 4 will be fairly easy to accomplish over time. The biggest challenge for hotels that want to be fossil fuel-free, will be converting to electric space and water heating.